Marketing vs. Car Accidents

Marketers spend millions (billions? trillions?) of dollars every year to essentially get your attention. I know this because I am personally responsible for a very tiny fraction of that amount spent.

And yet really all you need is a traffic accident to grab somebody's attention.

Every time I pass by an accident while on the road, people slow down to a crawl and gawk at what's going on on the side of the road. It's a "must-see" moment.

But put a fake accident in commercials like VW has tried doing recently, and people are totally repulsed. I don't know anybody who likes those ads... or most ads for that matter.

So how does a marketer get that traffic accident moment?

Sometimes it just happens by accident, I reckon.

All that planning and strategizing and money-spending goes completely ignored, while a quick, unplanned, violent mistake gets all the attention.

Drive safely.

Athletes Not Immune to Airline Accidents

Check out this list of athletes' deaths by airplane. I find this list to be quite amazing because we (the general public) tend to elevate athletes and coaches to practically immortal status and consider them as invincible. But accidental death can strike at any moment, even for this segment of the population who are generally in extraordinary physical shape. Makes you wonder if perhaps John Madden isn't too crazy for opting to ride in a motorhome between games.

At any rate, kudos to ThePilot.com (ironic name in this situation, perhaps), for printing this list and allowing us to remember the tragedies of days gone by involving athletes being killed in plane crashes. It's a sad and scary fact of life that these accidents can happen, even to sports idols. Let's just hope we don't see this again any time soon.